Player Profile: David McCreery

David McCreery

Born and grow­ing up in the very heart of Prot­est­ant East Bel­fast, David McCreery was steeped from an early age in a mar­in­ade of polit­ics and reli­gion. An incred­ible ver­sat­ile player who offered con­sid­er­able skill and hard work, the highly prom­ising mid­field man was first dis­covered by legendary Manchester United scout Bob Bishop.

David McCreery made his first league appear­ance for Manchester United in a goal­less draw against Ports­mouth at Frat­ton Park in Octo­ber 1974 and became a massive hit with the club´s sup­port­ers because of his uncom­prom­ising atti­tude and fight­ing spirit. McCreery appeared in 87 matches for Manchester United before the mul­ti­func­tional per­former was brought to Queens Park Rangers by his pre­vi­ous man­ager Tommy Docherty for a fee of £200,000 in 1979. Two years later, how­ever, he joined forces with Tulsa Rough­necks of the North Amer­ican Soc­cer League where he spent two enjoy­able sum­mer sea­sons. On his return to Eng­land the fol­low­ing year the ball win­ning mid­fielder signed for New­castle United, mak­ing 262 appear­ances for The Toon Army dur­ing his seven-year stay. He then had short spells with Heart of Mid­lothian and Hartle­pool respect­ively before he even­tu­ally was appoin­ted player-manager at Fourth Divi­sion Carl­isle United where he replaced former New­castle cent­ral defender Aidan McCaf­frey. After two years of ser­vice at Brunton Park, he took over as player-manager at former club Hartle­pool only to be given the sack at the end of the 1994–95 sea­son. The pop­u­lar mid­field player pulled on the fam­ous green shirt of North­ern Ire­land on 67 occa­sions and rep­res­en­ted his nat­ive coun­try in both the 1982 World Cup Finals in Spain and the 1986 World Cup Finals in Mex­ico. The indus­tri­ous David McCreery now owns a weld­ing equip­ment com­pany in County Durham.

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